Analysing online consumer shopping motivations for luxury products Essay

Analysing online consumer shopping motivations for luxury products (Methodology) - Essay Example Research Methodology This part of the study discusses the methodology which has been adopted for addressing to the research topic (Perry, 1998). The research has been made related to the topic ‘whether online shopping motivates the customers towards purchasing luxury products’. This part of the study would be sub divided into various segments, each part displaying some specific portion of the research methodology which has been implemented. 2. Research Philosophy Ontology Ontology is the initial point that will lead to the own established theoretical framework. It refers to the study of assumptions related to the nature of the social reality, what are the units that constitute this reality and how they interact with each other (Easterby-Smith, Thorpe and Lowe, 2002). Epistemology It is the branch of research philosophy which mainly focuses on the scope and nature of the knowledge. It is also referred to as ‘the theory of knowledge’ (Easterby-Smith, Thorpe an d Lowe, 2002). 3. Research Approach There are mainly two types of research approaches. One is the deductive research approach and the other is the inductive research approach. Deductive Research Deductive research approach helps in testing the validity of the research study in waterfall manner (Shaheen, n.d). This model follows a series of procedure i.e. theory establishment, followed by hypothesis generation, observation of the behavior of variables and then reaching the conclusion. Inductive Research Inductive research approach is a useful tool for converting the observation into theoretical conclusion (Shaheen, n.d.). This model follows a series of procedures i.e. observation of the behavior and relationship between the variables, identification of the type of relationship, establishing a suitable hypothesis and then reaching to the conclusion. 4. Data Sources The study requires collecting primary as well as secondary data in order to satisfy the research objective. Primary Data The Primary data is collected by the researcher himself/herself for conducting the research work. The primary data is generally collected by gathering the responses of the customers participating in the close ended survey that have been conducted for carrying out the research work. There are many forms of primary sources such as responses of the participants in the surveys, interviews etc (Somekh and Lewin, 2005). Secondary Data The secondary data is collected by reviewing the literatures that have been made on the same topic earlier. Secondary data collection is the process of collecting data where someone other than the user gathers the entire set of data (Vaivio, 2008). The data collected from the secondary research has helped to reach to the research objective in an appropriate manner. The secondary data sources like newspapers, journals, books, and data obtained from company websites and different working and research papers published by various academic scholars are utilised w hile conducting any research work. The collection of these data helps in proceeding in the research process in an appropriate manner. 5. Data Collection Approaches Quantitative Methodology The quantitative research methodology is such a research methodology which involves various computation techniques or statistical calculations (J. Hussey and R. Hussey, 1997). The methodology takes into consideration various statistical data for carrying out